Machine for pressing and treating textile articles



Dec. 9, 1969 H. KA NNEG|ESSER ETAL 3,482,341

MACHINE FOR PRESSING AND TREATING TEXTILE ARTICLES Filed May 5, 1968 s Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig. I

De 1969 H. KANNEGIESSER ETAL 3,482,341

MACHINE FOR PRESSING AND TREATING TEXTILE ARTICLES Filed May 5, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Dec. 1969 H. KANNEGIESSER ETAL I 3,

MACHINE FOR PRESSING AND TREATING TEXTILE ARTICLES Filedllay 5, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 mi 'QNel Q N\ Q a N r United States Patent 3,482,341 MACHINE FOR PRESSING AND TREATING TEXTILE ARTICLES Herbert Kannegiesser and Richard Juraschek, Vlotho (Weser), Germany, assignors t0 Kannegiesser Machineufabrik Gesellschaft mit besehrankter Haftung, Vlotho (Weser), Germany, a firm Filed May 3, 1968, Ser. No. 726,492 Claims priority, application Germany, Sept. 27, 1967, K 63,457 Int. Cl. D06f 71/08 US. Cl. 38-22 10 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention provides a machine for conveying textile articles resting on a plurality of support panels from one to the next of a plurality of stations for treatment or manipulation thereat, wherein said support panels are held in horizontal positionat some of said stations and tilted into an outwardly inclined position at others.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In our copending application Ser. No. 647,097 filed June 19, 1967, now Patent No. 3,425,142, there is described a machine for pressing and treating textile articles which comprises a plurality of supports disposed in a circle and indexable about a common center for carrying said articles from a receiving station consecutively to one or more treating stations and finally to a delivery station where the treated articles are removed, each support consisting of a fabric sheet or panel tautly suspended in a substantially trapezoidal frame. Primarily this machine is intended for the treatment of knitwear, particularly of articles of underwear and outerwear which are first drawn onto forms, as is well understood in the art, and then pressed and possibly steamed to improve lustre, handle and finish. One of the treating stations in the proposed machine therefore comprises a pair of pressing plates, one being disposed above, and the other below the panel carrying the article that is to be pressed.

In the machine described in our copending application the frames and panels carrying the articles that are to be treated slope downwards from the center of the machine towards its perimeter for the convenience of personnel who draw the articles onto the forms and adjust them on the panels during the limited period of time the panels are stationary at the receiving station, and who also draw the pressed articles off the forms and remove them at the receiving station. It has been found that the radially outward slope of the panels greatly facilitates this work and results in a considerable improvement in productivity.

On the other hand, it is a nuisance that the panels are thus inclined at the treating stations. For instance, the pressing plates must be inclined at the same angle as the panels and in order to prevent the pressing plates from fouling the panels during their indexing motion the plates must be withdrawn a considerable distance from each side of the panel to provide the necessary clearance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is the object of the present invention further to improve the machine described in our copending application in several respects.

More particularly it is an object of the present inven tion so to construct the machine that the risk of the panels fouling stationary equipment at treating stations is reliably obviated without at the same time relinquishing the advantage afforded by the inclined disposition of the panels at stations where manipulation of the treated articles by personnel is required.

Another object of the invention is to secure these results in the simplest possible way and without unduly adding to the complications of the machine.

Another object of the invention is so to improve the machine that the performance of a plurality of treatments can be performed automatically.

To attain these objects the present invention provides a machine for pressing and treating textile articles, which comprises a plurality of supports disposed in a circle and indexable about a common center for carrying articles from a receiving station consecutively to at least one treating station and finally to a delivery station where the articles are removed after having been treated, each of said supports consisting of a fabric sheet or panel tautly suspended in a substantially polygonal frame and said supports being so controlled that at some of said stations they occupy a position sloping downwards towards the perimeter of the machine, whereas at the remaining stations said supports lie in the horizontal.

This proposal is based on the thought that at the particular stations where the articles are required to be manipulated by personnel a sloping disposition of the panels is to be preferred, whereas at the other stations where the articles are treated by mechanical equipment, such as at the pressing station and at a steaming or fixing station, it is far more convenient that the articles should be carried on panels that are horizontal.

Accordingly it is proposed by the invention to mount each of the panels on a hinge and to lower them into a sloping position and to raise them into the horizontal as may be required. The operation of lowering and raising the panels may be effected by mechanical means during their indexing motion from one station to the next. However, in a preferred embodiment of the invention means are provided to raise the panels from a position of downward tilt into the horizontal before the indexing motion commences and to lower them into sloping position at those stations where this position is to be preferred, after they have reached and stopped at such stations.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic top plan view of a machine according to the invention comprising four indexable supporting panels and four stations;

F lgIG. 2 is a schematic side elevation of the machine in FIG. 3 is a top plan view, on a larger scale, of the mechanism for lowering the horizontal supporting panels into an outwardly tilted position at particular stations; and

FIG. 4 is a cross section of the mechanism in FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The invention will be exemplified by the description of a machine of a rotary indexable type. The principal purpose of this machine is the treatment of knitted articles which are drawn onto forms 10 as is conventional and well understood in the art. The treatments performed on the illustrated machine are those of pressing, steaming and fixing the knitted articles whilst these are on the forms 10.

The knitted articles are drawn onto the forms 10 on supports 11, 12, 13 and 14 constructed as described in our copending application. Each support comprises a polygonal carrier frame 15. A sheet material panel 16, preferably a textile fabric panel is tautly suspended in this frame 15. The knitted articles rest on this panel 16.

The illustrated embodiment is provided with four such supports 11, 12, 13 and 14 which can be jointly indexed about a common center, thereby to convey each of said supports in succession to each of four different stations, namely a receiving station I, a fixing station II, a pressing station III and a delivery station IV where the treated knitted articles are drawn off the forms and removed.

The frame 15 of each of the four supports 11 to 14 is mounted on the ends of two carrier arms 17 and 18 affixed to a rotatable carrier ring 19 (cf. FIG. 4) which in any desirable and convenient way is adapted to be indexable by a motor 20, for instance in the manner described in our copending application.

As proposed by the present invention the several supports 11 to 14 which carry the treated textile articles are controlled to drop into a position in which they slope radially outwards as indicated in FIG. 2 only at some of the stations, particularly at the receiving station I and at the delivery station IV, where the articles are actually handled by personnel. At the other stations, particularly at the fixing station II and at the pressing station III, the supports 11 to 14 are controlled to be held in the horizontal. Supplementary equipment at the two stations I and IV, such as worktables (not shown) underneath the supports 11 to 14 are therefore also arranged to slope radially outwards, whereas accessories and tools at other stations, particularly the pressing plates 21 and 22 at the pressing station III, can be horizontally placed. This facilitates the disposition and operation of the two pressing plates 21 and 22. Moreover, the horizontally held supports 11 to 14 can be more conveniently indexed in the region where the horizontal pressing plates 21 and 22 and steaming and fixing equipment or other devices are located, and this equipment need not be withdrawn very far from the surface of the supports 11 to 14 to provide adequate clearance for unobstructed indexing motion.

The supports 11 to 14 are transferred from their tilted into the horizontal position and conversely by hingeably lowering and raising the same. For this purpose the frames 15 of the supports 11 to 14 are tiltably mounted on the ends of the carrier arms 17 and 18 on hinges 23. The required tilting motion is imparted to each of the supports 11 to 14 by a lever arm 24 which is rigidly affixed to each carrier frame 15 and extends radially inwards. One such lever arm 24 is attached roughly to the center of the carrier frame 15 of each support 11 to 14. Since each of the carrier frames 15 is hingeably mounted on the ends of the carrier arms 17 and 18 the rigidly afiixed lever arm 24 in association with the carrier frame 15 represents a double-armed lever pivoting about the two hinges 23 of the carrier frame 15. When the free rearward end of the lever arm 24 is depressed the carrier frame 15 of the associated support will be correspondingly hingeably raised from a tilted, drooping into the horizontal position.

For thus deflecting the lever arms 24 and hingeably raising and lowering the several supports 11 to 14, the position of said lever arms 24 can be controlled by suitable cams. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 the rear end of each lever arm 24 carries a follower roller 25 which rides on a cam.

A special feature of the illustrated embodiment resides in that for the purpose of economizing in space, the tilting motions of the supports 11 to 14 by the deflection of the lever arms 24 are not generated during the indexing motion but when the supports 11 to 14 are stationary, more particularly immediately prior to the commencement and after the completion of an indexing step. For this purpose movable cams 26 and 27 are associated with each of the stations I to IV where the supports 11 to 14 are to be lowered into the aforementioned drooping position, i.e. more particularly at the two stations I and IV. These cams 26 and 27 are preferably jointly moved to and fro about the center of rotation of the supports 11 to 14. The

.4 follower rollers 25 on the lever arms 24 ride onto the underside of the two cams 26 and 27 when the associated carrier frames 15 are indexed to the stations I and IV. The cams 26 and 27 are so shaped that in one end position the cam edge retains the supports 11 to 14 in the horizontal, whereas in the other end position the supports 11 to 14 are permitted to drop into the inclined position by gravity.

In the region in which the supports 11 to 14 are to be kept horizontal a circular roller track rail 28 is provided. Principally this will be in the regions corresponding to the location of the two stations II and III. The follower rollers 25 on the lever arms 24 therefore bear against the underside of this circular roller track rail 28 in the regions of the two stations II and III, the elevational position of the circular roller track rail 28 being so chosen that the follower rollers 25 are depressed to the exact extent required to hold the associated supports 11 to 14 in the horizontal. In the region where the supports 11 to 14 are to be lowered into their outwardly sloping position, i.e. in the region of the stations I and IV the circular roller track rail 28 is discontinued or recessed, as will be understood by reference to FIG. 4.

When the required working operations have been performed on the articles at the several stations I to IV the described machine is adapted to move the cams 26 and 27 into engagement with the follower rollers 25 of the supports 11 and 14 which are in the tilted position, and to depress these follower rollers 25 by riding over the same until said supports 11 and 14 have been raised into the horrizontal. In this position the follower rollers 25 of the supports 11 and 14 will again be in alignment with the underside of the circular roller track rail 28. During the indexing step of the supports 11 to 14 to the next stations the follower roller 25 of the support 11 rides along the underside of the circular roller track rail 28 until the support 11 is at the station II. This follower roller 25 of the support 11 therefore remains in the horizontal. The follower roller 25 of the support 12 likewise rides along the underside of the circular roller track rail 28 until the support 12 reaches the station III. This follower roller 25 of the support 12 therefore also remains in the horizontal. The follower roller 25 of the support 13 analogously continues to retain the support 13 in the horizontal until the latter reaches the station IV, but at this station IV the follower roller 25 rides under the movable cam 27. The follower roller 25 associated with the support 14 similarly keeps its associated support 14 in the horizontal whilst the support 14 moves from station IV to station I, where this follower roller 25 rides under the other movable cam 26.

When all the supports 11 to 14 have thus been indexed to the next stations of the device the two movable earns 26 and 27 withdraw into the positions they had originally occupied, permitting the follower rollers 25 of the supports which are now at the stations I and IV to rise and the supports to drop into their outwardly inclined positions. The articles resting on the inclined and horizontal supports 11 to 14 at the several stations can now be submitted to the intended treatments and manipulations. For jointly operating the two movable cams 26 and 27, as required, these cams 26 and 27 are attached to a rotatable ring 29. This rotatable ring 29 is rotatably movable to and fro about the machine center by a ram cylinder 30 operable by a pressure medium. To this end a bellcrank lever 31 is provided, and one arm of the bellcrank lever 31 is linked to the ram 32 of the ram cylinder 30. The bellcrank lever 31 is fulcrumed on a pivot pin 33 mounted on a cross member 34 which extends between two diametrically opposed points of the rotatable ring 29. The top of the rim of the rotatable ring 29 bears against hearing rollers 35 mounted in the machine frame. The circular to and fro movements of the cams 26 and 27 are generated by the extension and retraction of the ram 32 of the ram cylinder 30 causing the bellcrank lever 31 and hence the rotatable ring 29 together with the cams 26 and 27 to be moved to and fro as required to raise and lower the supports 11 to 14.

The other arm of the bellcrank lever 31 is linked to the piston rod of a damping cylinder 36.

The damping cylinder 36 and the ram cylinder 30 are both attached to a transverse frame 37 which is itself secured to the frame of the machine.

The above-described mechanism permits the supports 11 to 14 for the treated articles to be moved into the most convenient positions for performing the necessary operations on the treated articles at the several stations. Since the supports 11 to 14 are raised into the horizontal before they are indexed they can be readily moved in relation to fixed equipment without being obstructed. The horizontal position of said supports at the pressing station III permits the pressing plates 21 and 22 to be horizontally disposed. Consequently the necessity of moving both plates for pressing the articles does not arise. Only one of the plates, preferably the plate 22 under the support need be movable. This plate 22 will then push the flexible fabric panel 16 carrying the article upwards against the upper plate 21 which may be located a suitable distance above the top of said panel. Conversely only the bottom pressing plate 22 need be lowered when the pressing operation has been completed, the support being released and thus assuming its previous position in which it is clear of both pressing plates 21 and 22.

What is claimed is:

1. A machine for pressing and treating textile articles, which comprises a plurality of supports disposed in a circle and indexable about a common center for carrying articles from a receiving station consecutively to at least one treating station and finally to a delivery Station where the articles are removed after having been treated, each of said supports consisting of a fabric sheet or panel tautly suspended in a substantially polygonal frame and said supports being so controlled that at some of said stations they occupy a position sloping downwards towards the perimeter of the machine, whereas at the remaining stations said supports lie in the horizontal.

2. A machine as defined in claim 1, comprising a first station where said articles are drawn onto forms on said supports, a second station for fixing the shape of said articles, a third station where said articles are pressed and a fourth station where said articles are drawn off said forms and removed from the machine, said supports being tilted into said sloping position at said first and fourth stations, whereas they are in the horizontal at said second and third stations.

3. A machine as defined in claim 2, comprising four supports mounted to be indexed from station to station about a common center.

4. A machine as defined in claim 3, wherein each of said supports is mounted to be tiltable from said horizontal into said sloping position and conversely by means of hinges.

5. A machine as defined in claim 4, wherein said supports are raised and lowered from and into said sloping positions during their indexing motion from station to station.

6. A machine as defined in claim 4, wherein said supports are raised from said sloping into said horizontal positions before said indexing motion begins and lowered from said horizontal positions into said sloping positions when the indexing motion has been completed.

7. A machine as defined in claim 4, including a cam track, wherein a lever arm is rigidly affixed to the frame of each of said supports and extends rearwards beyond the hinges of said support and carries a follower roller which rides on the underside of a fixed circular cam track adapted to control the raisin and lowering of said supports.

8. A machine as defined in claim 4, including a track rail wherein a lever arm is rigidly afiixed to each frame of said supports and extends rearwards beyond the hinges of said support and carries a follower roller which rides on the underside of a fixed circular roller track rail adapted to keep said support in the horizontal position in the region of some of said stations and on the underside of movable cams located in the region of the remaining stations and adapted by their movement to lower and raise said frames into and from their tilted positions after said frames have arrived and before they leave each of said remaining stations.

9. A machine as defined in claim 8, wherein said movable cams are associated with stations at which said articles are to be manipulated by attendant personnel, said fixed circular roller track rail being interrupted or recessed in the region of action of said movable earns.

10. A machine as defined in claim 9, wherein said frames are held in the horizontal at a station where a pressing operation is to be performed by two pressing plates of which one is mounted horizontally closely below said frame and the other horizontally closely above said frame and said bottom plate is upwardly movable to press a fabric panel suspended in said frame and an article deposited thereon against the upper plate, whereas in lowered position of said bottom plate sufficient clearance remains above and below said frame for indexing the same to the next station.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,725,514 8/1929 Harootniain 38-16 2,765,549 10/1956 Binns et a1. 38-22 2,943,772 7/ 1960 Weihmayr 223-57 3,112,847 12/ 1963 Brumby 38-5 X FOREIGN PATENTS 895,346 5/ 1962 England.

MERVIN STEIN, Primary Examiner GEORGE V. LARKIN, Assistant Examiner 

